By Bill Parry
As the days get shorter and temperatures begin to drop, homeowners across the borough are scheduling deliveries of home heating oil, kerosene and propane. One Queens native is helping them find better prices with his three-year-old crowdsourcing website that can help them save big if they are smart about how they research and negotiate with vendors.
Bob Silverstein grew up in Flushing, just a few blocks from John Bowne high school, and every year he would watch his father call the same heating oil vendor for decades without shopping around for companies offering a better price.
“My dad was always open with us about his bills and the one that shocked me the most was the home heating bill,” Silverstein said. “It always looked like a fortune to me and he always went with the same company out of convenience. He’d never shop around saying he didn’t have time for that. Work, kids and bowling were more important.”
Some 22 million consumers spend on average $1,400 a year to heat their homes with heating oil or propane amounting to $31 billion of recurring, non-discretionary spending each year. Unlike food, appliances, and many services, consumers have no way to easily shop for and compare fuel prices.
So, Silverstein started Fuelw
“You can save $200 a year easily once you realize there’s a 50-cent difference from Vendor A to Vendor C. The math is pretty measurable,” he said. “What Fuelwonk does is make shopping for heating oil easier for people to make a better choice.”
He claims to have no secret relationship with any heating fuel vendors, nor does the site request any personal data.
“We place information in the hands of consumers and ask them to make a smart choice and re-evaluate their choice regularly,” Silverstein said. “I’m not making money off it yet. It’s more a labor of love.”
Silverstein was lured west after graduating from Queens College in 1976, recruited by a computer company in California where he has developed Fuelw
“You are an example of the success that can be achieved when one combines great entrepreneurial spirit and a commitment to service,” Matos wrote. “I wish you a great run with Fuelwonk. Thanks for ‘paying it forward.’”
Silverstein credits his education at John Bowne and Queens College for his success and as his website continues to grow he will impose a small subscription fee. But until March it is still free to access.
“If you join the website now, you’ll have free access for a lifetime,” Silverstein said.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
